On Friday 30 November 2007 23:31:46 Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 11:17:27PM -0600, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> > I see USE_TOOLS supports imake, itools, xmkmf, makedepend, and
> > mkdirhier.
> >
> > Some packages use that and some use USE_IMAKE. USE_IMAKE is
> > documented.
> >
> > When to use what?
>
> USE_IMAKE is older and was necessary in the pre-modular days to
> turn some magic processing on. I don't think it has a valid use
> anymore, but it should be checked that all magic remains.

Isn't the distinction that:

USE_TOOLS+=imake (or xmkmf ...) means that the package uses that tool 
in the build at some point.

USE_IMAKE means that the package uses imake at the configure stage to 
do the configuration (and mk/configure/configure.mk calls it).

USE_IMAKE implies USE_TOOLS+=imake but not the other way round.

cheers
mark